AG defends Patriot Act

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration yesterday stepped up its fight to preserve the controversial USA Patriot Act, warning that proposed legislation to scale back the law would undermine national security and would face a presidential veto if approved.

In a letter to Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General John Ashcroft contended that a bipartisan proposal to undo parts of the Patriot Act "would make it even more difficult to mount an effective antiterror campaign than it was before the Patriot Act was passed."

In the letter and in comments to reporters yesterday, Ashcroft also warned that President Bush was prepared to veto the proposed legislation, the Security and Freedom Ensured (SAFE) Act, which is cosponsored by Senators Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Larry Craig, Republican of Idaho.

Ashcroft's letter and remarks are the latest salvo in the Congressional battle over the Patriot Act, the sweeping antiterrorism measure Congress approved overwhelmingly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In his State of the Union speech this month, Bush called on Congress to make permanent the portions of the Patriot Act that are set to expire in 2005.

"When American lives are at stake, we need to have all the capacities to disrupt and to defeat terrorism that we've been successfully using over the last 28 months," Ashcroft said at a news conference yesterday.

But the law has come under fire as an infringement of civil liberties; more than 240 state and local governments have passed resolutions condemning the measure.

The House surprised the Bush administration last summer when it approved an amendment to deny funding for "sneak-and-peek" warrants, which allow agents to conduct secret searches and delay notifying the targets that they have done so.

Durbin said in a statement that "Ashcroft's response is an unfortunate overreaction to a reasoned and measured effort to mend the Patriot Act," which "in some cases . . . goes too far."

Ashcroft wrote in his letter to Hatch that the SAFE Act "would hamper our ability to surveil sophisticated international terrorists" by eliminating some kinds of roving wiretaps, and "would run the risk of tipping off terrorists" by limiting the use of delayed-notice warrants.

The SAFE Act, which was introduced in October by lawmakers of both parties, has not yet had a hearing in either the House or Senate.